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As more and more translations become available, it is hard not to be concerned that people will no longer have a interest in learning lashon hakodesh. I believe lashon hakodesh is important not only for accuracy but for kedusha as well, as lashon hakodesh has the power to make the words sink in. Unlike the new digital dictionaries that enhance ones understanding of lashon hakodesh, artscroll translations might do the opposite for some people.
Putting aside the achromnim for now, will there come a day when every sefer written by a rishon and earlier is translated? And is this a good thing? How long before every Rashi and Tosfos is translated into english?
Translations are usually never as good as the original. They frequently lack the nuances and things get lost in translation.
There has been a machlokes rabbonim for a long time whether seforim should be translated. Rav Shach (I believe) was opposed to translating the Gemorah into English.
Most translations are little better the gibberish, at least if you are translating Hebrew into English. Hebrew into Aramaic is much better, as well as Yiddish into English. The published translations are usable if you read and can understand the original and read them together (using the translation as a de facto dictionary with words in context). Assume that if you’ve relied on a translation, you get about half the content of the original. If you believe you have learned something and have relied on a translation, you have deceived yourself. A big reason the goyim have weird ideas about Taanach is their “Bible” is a translation.
The problem is that Hebrew is a Semitic language, meaning it has only two tenses, and since it is inflected can get away with a fluid sort of syntax (English has a rigid syntax relying on word order and over a dozen tenses, not to mention moods).
The percentage of orthodox Jews (the only market for sefarim) who speak English is falling steadily since the Hebrew-speaking and Yiddish-speaking components of the Jewish world are better at reproducing.
Translations between Semitic languages, such as those of the Judeo-Arabic classics (e.g. Kuzari), or translations of Aramaic into Hebrew (e.g. restatement of the gemara into Hebrew) are less problematic.
There are pluses and minuses to translation.
As a woman who was brought up in an english speaking environment, my hebrew is ok. I can understand what a paragraph is talking about, but if you asked me to translate word for word, I’d have a problem. I appreciate the english translation in the siddur and tehillim. As well as the chumash – so that i can help my children to better understand what they are learning in school.
IMO, english translation in seforim are good for those that learn on their way to/from work/appts/etc and cannot just ask their chavrusah to help translate something.
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